1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a windshield for use on automobiles.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
The three-dimensional shape of an automobile windshield has a large effect on aerodynamic characteristics of an automobile body on which the windshield is mounted, and is one of the important factors involved in the styling of the automobile body. There have been developed automobile windshields of various configurations. Recent technology for bending sheet glass makes it possible to produce curved glass sheets which have an S-shaped profile in vertical cross section, i.e., a vertical cross-sectional shape defined by a cubic curve or a curve of higher degree.
A glass sheet of an S-shaped vertical cross section, used as an automobile windshield, is expected to give an improved quality to the style of an automobile body and also to impart aerodynamic improvements to the automobile body. When such an S-shaped glass sheet is fixed as a windshield to a window frame of the automobile body, a region of the windshield near the lower edge thereof, more specifically, a region below a curve which extends through the minimal points of profile lines of the windshield in an orthogonal coordinate system with its horizontal axis represented by a straight line interconnecting the upper and lower edges of the windshield, is inclined so as to lie nearly parallel to the line of sight of the driver of the automobile. Therefore, the optical image of an object as seen by the driver through that region of the windshield is greatly distorted.